H.M. TREASURY

HM Treasury News Release

186/99

8 November 1999

MIT CHOOSES UK AS EUROPEAN PARTNER

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has agreed to locate its European partnership in the UK the Government announced today.

MIT and Cambridge University will jointly establish an Institute which will :

*undertake education and research designed to improve the UK's entrepreneurship, productivity and competitiveness;

*develop a research programme in fields likely to have a substantial impact on the future evolution of technology;

*stimulate the development of technology based business out of the academic base;

*adapt MIT's business executive programmes to the UK; and

*develop common courses in science, technology engineering and management for third year degree students.

The Institute will form a national network open to the Enterprise Centres at UK universities. The network will offer courses developed by the Institute to these universities and co-ordinate research activities in areas related to competitiveness, entrepreneurship and productivity. This wider dissemination will support the Government's broader objectives to improve links between universities and businesses. It will also complement the work of the new Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership.

The Government will contribute around £14 million a year, on average, over the next 5 years towards the costs of establishing the Institute. The Universities will raise £16 million from the UK private sector. Welcoming the development, Gordon Brown said:

"This is a path breaking innovation. By choosing the UK as its European Partner, MIT has recognised our country's strengths. The new Institute will help us build on those by generating new ideas and by creating new business and jobs."

Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett said:

"The Institute will help place the UK at the cutting edge of the globalisation of higher education. It will bring advantages not only to Cambridge University, but to universities across Britain through the new network of Enterprise Centres."

Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry said:

"Securing this is a major achievement. The combination of Cambridge and MIT will bring a dynamic force to support our agenda of innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship. It will strengthen the UK's position in the knowledge driven economy of the future."

Charles Vest, President of MIT said :

"This will be the only institutional partnership which MIT will have in Europe. The University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are joining forces in Europe to create a new model for global higher education. We will build on our complementary strengths to invent the future of education, research and economic development. The foresight of the British Government, the combined strengths of our facilities, and a growing alliance with far-sighted industries will establish extraordinary new pathways toward a creative, productive and entrepreneurial society in the new century."

Sir Alec Broers, Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University said :

"The Cambridge-MIT Institute will be a beacon for change. It will bring a new dimension to education and research at British universities. We aim to work closely with the business community to provide the education and the ideas needed for success in the 21st Century."

Funding for the Cambridge University Enterprise Centre will be incorporated into the Institute. This will release money in the Science Enterprise Challenge Fund and an announcement will be made in due course about its allocation.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership aims to improve the capacity and competencies of UK managers. The Council will be a small group of top industrialists and entrepreneurs, chaired by Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman of AEA Technology. Its first task will be to develop a management strategy and examine the way that management education is organised and delivered. Funding of around £ 1 million will be available from DFEE and DTI jointly.

The results of the Science Enterprise Challenge competition were announced by Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on 14 September. The Enterprise Centres which will link up with the Institute include the University of Bristol, University of Glasgow, Imperial College, London Business School, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), University of Nottingham Business School and the University of Sheffield.

A BankBoston report in March 1997 said that if companies founded by MIT graduates and faculty formed an independent national, the revenue produced would make that nation the 24th largest economy in the world. It also stated that 4,000 MIT-related companies employ 1.1 million people and have annual world sales of $232 billion. MIT related firms include 20 companies in England and 3 in Scotland - hiring 4,395 people and had sales on $827 million in 1994.

US companies which have been founded or co-founded by MIT graduates or the Faculty include Hewlett-Packard, Rockwell International, McDonnell Douglas, Digital, Texas Instruments, Campbell Soup Company, and Intel. In the US, MIT is routinely awarded more patents that any other university and is the leader also in terms of the number of new companies formed by licensing university technology.

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